Current Status April 2018

Here is the status of the Ryan DNA Project as of April 2018.

There are 270 members in the project. Of these 176 have undertaken Y-DNA testing, 120 have done the Family Finder test (autosomal DNA, atDNA) and 70 have tested with mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA). The Big Y test was undertaken by 23 members thus far.

Y-DNA results of all the project members are viewable on our Results Page here. You can also see these on the FamilyTreeDNA Results Page here (but you have too be signed in to your FTDNA account). If you cannot see your results, it is probably because your Privacy settings are set to the default settings. You can change them by following the instructions in Point 4 here.

As the focus of the project is Y-DNA testing, information on your earliest known direct male ancestor is of particular importance. Although 193 out of the 266 members have supplied some information on this ancestor, the actual birth location has been supplied in fewer than 40 cases. This is vital information as it helps to locate the origin of each specific genetic group. All members are encouraged to supply this information, either by emailing me directly (mauricegleeson@doctors.org.uk) so that I can add it to the Results Page; or alternatively you can enter the information yourself on your FTDNA webpage by following the instructions here.

The 7 genetic groups of the Ryan DNA Project

There are currently 7 groups identified thus far. Here is a brief overview of each one. More in-depth blog posts will be posted in due course on each group in turn:

Group 1

The 6 members of this group belong to Haplogroup I. Their terminal SNP is currently M223 as no one in this group has undertaken downstream SNP testing as yet (either via the Big Y or a SNP Pack). The Earliest Known Ancestor (EKA) information currently supplied is insufficient to give a clue to the origins of this group.

Group 2

This is the largest group and currently has 85 members. They belong to Haplogroup R, subgroup R1b - the most numerous group in Western Europe. Several members of this group have EKA origins in Tipperary and thus this group may represent the Tipperary / Limerick Ryans discussed in the Surname Dictionaries by Woulfe, MacLysaght, and others. Several members of this group have undertaken downstream SNP testing and the terminal SNP for this group appears to be M756.

Group 3

The 4 members of this group also belong to Haplogroup R1b but appear to be distantly related to Group 2 (and indeed the other R1b subgroups). There is insufficient EKA info (other than "Ireland" in 3 cases) so it is not possible to predict where they might be from. No downstream SNP testing has been undertaken as yet in this group, so we don't know where they sit on the Tree of Mankind.

Group 4

This group has 3 members, all of whom state Ireland as the EKA country of origin, and one further specifies Sligo as the birth location of his EKA. One person undertook (upstream) SNP Pack testing which has identified the likely major subclade for this group, namely Z253. In addition, the newest member has undertaken Big Y testing, and this has identified a SNP marker (A6119) for this particular group, which is further downstream than Z253 on the Tree of Mankind. 

Group 5

Another 2-person group. Haplogroup R1b again. No downstream SNP testing. No EKA birth location recorded.

Group 6

There are 4 people in this group (once again Haplogroup R1b). All have Irish origins and one has an EKA from Tipperary. Upstream SNP testing undertaken by one of the group indicates that he (and probably all the group) is L21+. This is a very common SNP marker in Western Europe and further downstream SNP testing will need to be done to find out exactly where on the Tree of Mankind these members sit and who their nearest neighbours are.

Group 7

Another 2-person group, but both have done the Big Y. The genetic distance between the 2 people is quite extreme (9/37, 14/67), but both test positive for BY182 as a terminal SNP and so I have grouped them together provisionally. In a later blog post we will look at how old this DNA marker is likely to be. No EKA birth location is provided.

Ungrouped Ryan's

There is a large group of 42 people with direct male line Ryan ancestry who do not have a match in the project - 34 belong to Haplogroup R1b, and 8 belong to other haplogroups. Some may belong to rare Ryan subgroups and they are the first from that subgroup to test (and hence there is no match for them in the database). Others may be the result of a Surname or DNA Switch (SDS) at some time in the recent or distant past. This group will be explored in a separate blog post.

Other Surnames

Several people have joined the project who have Ryan ancestry but not on their direct male line. Their Y-DNA is therefore not Ryan-related and these people have been placed in the "Other Surnames" group and are not relevant to the present analysis of Y-DNA. 

Next Steps

1) birth location is essential but often missing from member's profiles - I will be contacting individual members to supply this.

2) more in-depth analyses of each group will follow in due course, including assessment of their likely origin and their age. The in-depth assessments will attempt to address the questions highlighted on our Interpreting the Results page.

Maurice Gleeson

April 2018